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TCS: Winter Poets – Musical and Rumorous
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
There is no winter without snow,
A Poem for International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
Modern slavery is defined as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.
It’s estimated that over 40 million adults are victims of modern slavery, and 150 million children are subject to child labor.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was born on the 37th anniversary of the day Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Hughes became an American poet, novelist, short story writer, non-fiction writer, and playwright. He was a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance in New York.
To read “Remember” by Langston Hughes click:
TCS: November Ends and December Begins – The Music Plays Itself
Good Morning!
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
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When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake
of convincing those who do not know it,
but for the sake of defending those that do.
— William Blake
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Aleksandr Blok, Grace Andreacchi, Madeleine L'Engle, Owen Dodson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Sarah Jones, Sir Philip Sydney, TCS - November Ends and December Begins - The Music Plays Itself, William Blake
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A Poem for Hanukkah
Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) is now remembered for her poem The New Colossus, enshrined in the base of the Statue of Liberty, which contains the lines, so often quoted when immigration is talked about in America: “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/ Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me/ I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
She was born in New York City on July 22 in 1849, the year that outgoing U.S. President James K. Polk became the first president to have his photograph taken while in office, incoming President Zachary Taylor refused to take his oath of office on a Sunday, and thousands of ‘49ers’ were joining the California Gold Rush. Lazarus was born into a large and prosperous Sephardic Jewish family, the fourth of seven children. She became a prolific writer and poet, but also was an outspoken advocate and activist for the thousands of destitute Ashkenazi Jewish refugees who fled to America from the anti-Semitic violence of the Russian pogroms. She volunteered at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and helped to establish the Hebrew Technical Institute. Many of her now-forgotten poems were about her religion, including this one, about Hanukkah.
To read “The Feast of Lights” by Emma Lazarus, click:
Posted in History, Poetry
Tagged A Poem for Hanukkah, Emma Lazurus, Hanukkah, The Feast of Lights
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A Poem for Native American Heritage Day
The Friday after Thanksgiving has been designated as Native American Heritage Day in the U.S. since 2008, but some Native Americans feel the day is a poor choice, since it coincides with the aggressive capitalism and greed of ‘Black Friday,’ annual opening day of the Christmas shopping frenzy. Thanksgiving itself is viewed by some as a “day of mourning” as it celebrates the survival of the Pilgrims, part of the first wave of colonialists to arrive in North America, which would so drastically wipe out millions of the First Peoples, and end forever the way of life of the survivors.
Joy Harjo (1952 – ) is a poet, musician, author, activist and teacher, and the current U.S. Poet Laureate. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, she is member of the Mvskoke tribe, and a highly influential figure in the second wave of the artistic Native American Renaissance. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, earned her undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico, and an MFA from the University of Iowa’s Creative Writing Program. Harjo is the recipient of many awards, including the 2009 Eagle Spirit Achievement Award and the Wallace Stevens Award in Poetry by the Academy of American Poets.
So I offer Joy Harjo’s poem, “Perhaps the World Ends Here,” which seems to me to express both something unique to her Mvskoke heritage, and something universal about kitchen tables.
Thanksgiving, Crimes, and Democracy
by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
“Forever Thankful” – Irene Fowler
Whatever your preferred flavour of life is – sweet, savoury, spicy or somethin’ else, welcome to the melting pot. I am on West African time, so ‘servez-vous.’
Even though we are helpless to change things on a macro scale, we can in our own small ways, align with love and the positive. As we contribute our quota, we are building towards a critical mass which can force change/s for good.
Good morning everyone
The Thanksgiving holiday is not celebrated in the international community, albeit, with a few exceptions. The rest of the world recognizes the prominence of this traditional national holiday, therefore, as part of the brotherhood of man, I join the Thanksgiving celebrations – in spirit.
TCS: This Land Is Two Lands
Good Morning!
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
____________________________
This land is your land and this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me
– Woody Guthrie
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Alicia Ostriker, America the Beautiful, American Justice, Emma Lazarus, TCS: This Land Is Two Lands, The Rule of Law, The Statue of Liberty, Woody Guthrie
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The Unrecognized War – A Call to Arms
by Nona Blyth Cloud
“Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars
and brought in matter that should feed this fire;
and now ’tis far too huge to be blown out with
that same weak wind which enkindled it.”William Shakespeare – King John, Act V, scene 2
Governments of Nations are slow and ponderous, they do not move with speed in their day-to-day work.
Only one thing seems to rouse them to fever-pitch action: War.
Posted in Climate Crisis, Denialism
Tagged Global War, Planet Earth, The Unrecognized War – A Call to Arms
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Greta Thunberg and Climate Change
by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
Mother Earth joins humanity to lament and weep
Together, wail and sob, crying out from the deep
Reverse our course, lest life, in all forms
Be damned, to eternal, lifeless, sleep.– Irene Fowler
Whatever your preferred flavour of life is – sweet, savoury, spicy or somethin’ else, welcome to the melting pot. I am on West African time, so ‘servez-vous.’
Even though we are helpless to change things on a macro scale, we can in our own small ways, align with love and the positive. As we contribute our quota, we are building towards a critical mass which can force change/s for good.
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Beauty And The Beast – Quotes:
“She moves like beauty, she whispers to us of wind and forest—and she tells us stories, such stories that we wake in the night, dreaming dreams of a life long past. she reminds us of what we used to be.
She reminds us of what we could be.”
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“Since you are so kind as to think of me, be so kind as to bring me a rose, for as none grow hereabouts, they are a kind of rarity.”
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“She warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within.”
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“I am always surprised to discover that when the world seems darkest, there exists the greatest opportunity for light.”
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TCS: Harbingers of Sunbreak and Darkness
. . Good Morning!
____________________________
Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
____________________________
To keep our faces toward change and
behave like free spirits in the presence
of fate is strength undefeatable.
— Helen Keller
Posted in Poetry, The Coffee Shop
Tagged Eleven Poets in Five Days, Fate, Harbingers of Sunbreak and Darkness, TCS
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Flowers For Socrates 